;e flightline was busy every day and always full of scale
aircraft. Here is part of the lineup for the Pro-Am class.

TOP GUN

STORMY WEATHER COULDN’T STOP THESE MASTER MODELERS!

By the Model Airplane News Crew Photos by David Hart, Carl Layden, and Rich Uravitch

Marking its 26th year, Top Gun 2014 is now in the history books. Frank Tiano’s Paradise Field, located near Lakeland LinderAirport in Lakeland, FL, featured a beautiful new paved runway, and with the amount of rain this year, it was one scale invita-tional that this year’s Top Gun competitors won’t soon forget. On Wednesday and ;ursday, when most of the Pro-Am pilotswere flying, the weather was typical of the event — beautiful blue skies and sunshine.

However, halfway through Friday, the heavens opened up (if you can believe it, this is onlythe second time it has rained during a Top Gun event!) and it poured. It got so bad thatSaturday’s flight rounds and judging were cancelled. ;is turned the event into a “one-round shootout” on Sun-day, where the pilots in the Unlimited, Expert, Masters, and Team categories had only one chance to post a flightscore. As Top Gun is usually the very definition of nonstop action, this year’s shortened flight rounds were sim-ply awe-inspiring. Static scoring was moved right to the flightline so there was little waiting between the judgingtable and the pilot stations. As is usually the case, the best of the best rose to the occasion and the winners tooktheir places for the award ceremony. And when the (somewhat damp) dust settled, there was no debating thequality of the aircraft or the talent of the pilots who ultimately earned their final placement in the competition.M

Model Airplane News’ DebraCleghorn and Gerry Yarrishcame prepared — check outthose rain boots!A calm moment before the storm, Greg Tracey’s F-84G;underjet sits on the flightline at the end of day one.Greg came all the way from Australia to compete.